Sunlight and Vitamin D Change Skin's Body Clock
Differential Regulation of Circadian Clock Genes by UV-B Radiation and 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D: A Pilot Study during Different Stages of Skin Photocarcinogenesis
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Vitamin D and UV-B affect the skin’s clock in different, non-overlapping ways.
Many assume vitamin D is how sunlight influences biology—but here, UV-B and vitamin D act independently on circadian genes, challenging that assumption.
Practical Takeaways
Consider timing your sun exposure to support healthy skin rhythms—morning light may help synchronize your skin’s clock.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Vitamin D and UV-B affect the skin’s clock in different, non-overlapping ways.
Many assume vitamin D is how sunlight influences biology—but here, UV-B and vitamin D act independently on circadian genes, challenging that assumption.
Practical Takeaways
Consider timing your sun exposure to support healthy skin rhythms—morning light may help synchronize your skin’s clock.
Publication
Journal
Nutrients
Year
2024
Authors
Leandros Lamnis, Christoforos Christofi, A. Stark, Heike Palm, Klaus Roemer, Thomas Vogt, Jörg Reichrath
Related Content
Claims (5)
Spending too much time in the sun over a long period can throw off your skin's natural daily clock.
UV-B light at a certain dose changes how a key body-clock gene behaves in skin cells, suggesting sunlight might reset the skin’s internal clock all on its own.
Vitamin D can change the daily rhythm of key genes in skin cells, according to lab studies.
In normal skin cells, the body's daily clock for a key protein (BMAL1) works well, but in certain skin cancer cells, that clock barely works at all — suggesting the clock breaks down as skin cells turn cancerous.
UV-B light and vitamin D affect our skin cells' internal clocks in totally different ways — and vitamin D doesn’t explain how UV-B changes those clocks.